A Chicago tax preparer was given a seven-year prison sentence today after being found guilty at trial of stealing her dead grandmother’s pension payments and making fake tax returns for customers.
Court papers and trial evidence showed that Eunice Salley submitted 22 fake tax returns for clients in 2016 and 2017.
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The returns reported fake earnings, withholdings, medical, charity, and employment costs. Salley charged consumers a preparation fee and up to 50% of the return. 22 bogus returns sought almost $1 million in refunds.
Salley Committed Pension Fraud
Salley’s grandmother, an American Can Co. retiree, died in 2009. Salley received monthly pension payments when her grandmother died.
American Can Co. paid the grandma 33 pension checks totaling $14,131 from January 2013 to December 2017.
FBI and IRS-Criminal Investigation
Salley deposited these checks into her six bank accounts. Salley falsely claimed her grandma was living by notarizing and submitting papers to the pension plan administrator. Salley failed to submit $5,000 in embezzled pension payments to the IRS in 2017.
U.S. District Judge Robert M. Dow Jr. sentenced Salley to three years of supervised release and $558,369 in reparations.
The prosecutors were Tax Division Assistant Chief Andrew Kameros and Northern District of Illinois Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas.
Source: https://www.justice.gov/